This is a male valley carpenter bee. I normally only see the all black females here, so this is a rare sighting in my yard. The valley carpenter bee is the biggest bee in California. The females can get really huge. The males are typically not as big; however, they are still fairly imposing. This one was definitely bigger than all the other bees around at the time, and he was clambering all over the escallonia like the bee version of Godzilla, knocking off petals and pollen, and shaking off the ants. The escallonia is like crack for bees, so I’m betting he’ll be back!
